A very bad packaging gallery

Now that the holidays are over and we’ve all had some time to allow the stress of finding, buying, and shipping the perfect gift for Aunt Marge, your cousin Jim, and all 35 of your nieces and nephews to leave your system; let’s open up old wounds by looking at a couple of examples of bad packaging.

Over the last few months, we’ve collected some photos of excessive packaging from some online sources. We like to regularly share these photos in addition to the ones we get from friends, family, and our coworkers. Let’s take a quick look at what not to do when you package your items.

First off, let’s take a look at a ruler.

See, this is pretty bad. Ninety-nine percent of this box is empty space, and it looks like it’s about 20″ x 12″ x 6″. Before now, this box would be charged for one pound of weight. But under the new dimensional charge rules, this box will be charged as is it weighed about 11 pounds!

But that’s nowhere near as ironic as this guy, who received a ruler in a 2 yard box.

I’m assuming the measurement I was told is correct because the guy had a ruler. I’m guessing the box’s dimensions are 72″ x 6″ x 6″, which would give it a dimensional weight of 19 lbs.

Maybe the fulfillment center mixed up his order’s box with this guy’s, which has the opposite problem:

Now if you want to prevent product damages, this is not a good way to go.

And in the category of “Oh my gosh, that’s so much waste! How will all of this fit in my recycling bin?” we have a clear winner in the photo below. A person found an online store selling pens for 50 cents each. They bought 45….

Yes, each and every set of pens came in its own box. This is what it looked like when he opened it:

Going back to dimensional weight, these boxes don’t look very big. Probably only about 12″ x 6″ x 6″, which is a dimensional weight of 3 pounds each (although it looks like some of the boxes are bigger than others). So that means that the fulfillment center would pay to ship at least 135 pounds of stuff.

Obviously, photos like these are the exception, not the rule. But before January 1st, they typically would only hurt a company’s bottom line in esoteric ways—reduced customer loyalty, embarrassment on social media, and a reputation for being needlessly wasteful.

But now, under the new dimensional weight rules, these examples will cost several times more just in shipping.

Use smaller boxes people.

If you would like help understanding dimensional weight and how to reduce those dimensional charges effective January 2015, download our free guide by clicking the button below: